Tokyo: Earth Online Manga Artist

However, Eri Aragaki's drawing skills improved very quickly. In less than half a year since the series started, her drawing skills have improved by leaps and bounds.

He might not be considered a top-tier comic artist, but he's certainly a first-rate one.

In the initial part of the serialization, because Eri Aragaki was isolated and working alone, there were some errors or shortcomings.

Back then, she drew a whole story by herself, doing everything from the line drawing to applying halftone dots to coloring in the ink.

Sometimes I draw until the middle of the night and my eyes are blurry. When I check the next morning, I find that the angle of a halftone dot is wrong, or that a line has overflowed when I fill in black.

But then...

My drawing skills have also improved, and with the help of Natsume Akane, Takeda Ayane, and Erina, there are naturally very few shortcomings.

There are very few things that need to be modified. Even if modifications are needed, it's not because of quality issues, but because of other issues that need to be considered when publishing a standalone book.

For example, when serialized in a magazine, the margins of each page are partially cut off in a single volume, so certain speech bubbles and important visual elements near the edge of the paper need to be moved inward by a few millimeters.

For example, the "To be continued next week" prompt at the end of each chapter in a serialized version needs to be removed in the collected volumes and replaced with a natural transition between chapters.

These have nothing to do with the quality of the artwork; they are purely technical adjustments to the publishing process.

With the arrival of November, Tokyo has become completely cold.

Earth Online November 2007 Minor Version Update Announcement.

Temperatures continue to drop across Japan, with snowfall beginning in Hokkaido and the Tohoku region, and temperatures in the Kanto region dropping to single digits in the mornings and evenings.

Forest Ape players are advised to change their external decorations from the Spring/Autumn style to the Winter style as soon as possible. Those who fail to do so will continue to be affected by the cold status ailment, which will reduce their movement speed by 5%.

The flu season has officially arrived. Infected individuals will randomly acquire negative statuses such as cough and fever, which will last for three to seven days. During this period, their social attributes will temporarily decrease and their physical exertion will increase by 20%.

Players are advised to visit designated supply points to get vaccinated against the flu and reduce the chance of infection...

Additionally, our team believes that the Insect Player's recent performance seems too strong, and we have decided to revert the original value of its skill "Nighttime Swarm Activity"...

The typhoon season has officially ended, random typhoon events have stopped occurring in the Japanese archipelago, and the safety of outdoor activities has improved.

We wish all players a pleasant gaming experience.

……

Although winter has arrived, Eri Aragaki is living a more and more comfortable life.

After becoming a cartoonist, I became more and more proficient at my work, unlike when I was a complete novice and I was always flustered and overwhelmed.

Moreover, her workload hasn't increased much recently. Revising the single-volume manuscript only took her a little over an hour, and completing the written interview took less than half an hour.

So she started to slack off again, for example... she stayed up all night again last night and wore herself out.

Because of her increased income, she recently bought a lot of things, such as the Nintendo DS, which is known as the national handheld console, and the Sony PS3 game console and controller that swept the world last year.

These two machines, along with a bunch of game discs, cost nearly 100,000 yen, but that's nothing compared to her current income; her weekly royalties from Attack on Titan alone are more than that.

This finally allowed her to experience what financial freedom truly means.

Although these consoles and the games on them were somewhat too classic, and the graphics couldn't compare to the next-generation AAA titles she was used to now, Eri Aragaki still had a lot of fun playing them.

Last night I also stayed up all night playing Dynasty Warriors 5, thoroughly experiencing the most primitive gaming joy of the ancient hack-and-slash games.

Using Zhao Yun to charge in and out of Changban Slope seven times, or using Lü Bu to sweep through thousands of troops at Hulao Pass, with the screen full of soldiers being cut down like wheat, this simple and brutal sense of satisfaction is a completely different kind of joy from the sense of accomplishment of drawing comics.

She played through the game, one level after another, and when she finished, she looked out the window and saw that it was already dawn.

However, she genuinely had no idea that she had worn herself out from staying up all night.

It wasn't until Erina got up and came out of her bedroom that she saw her older sister in the living room still wearing yesterday's clothes, sitting in front of the TV, holding the controller in her hand, with the "Dynasty Warriors" game's completion screen displayed on the screen.

Erina immediately said, "Sister! You've stayed up all night again."

"Huh? Erina, are you awake yet?"

Eri Aragaki then realized that it was already past seven in the morning.

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Nagato is Me

But... that's what it's like to become a professional comic artist.

Apart from the specific deadlines like Fridays and the Wednesdays for submitting storyboards for review, everything else is pretty much the same.

No boss is watching you clock in, no colleagues are urging you to submit PPTs, and you have complete control over your time.

This kind of freedom requires more self-discipline than the artwork itself, and Eri Aragaki happens to be someone who is not particularly good at self-discipline.

Aragaki Eri, realizing she had exhausted herself from staying up all night, finally felt tired and yawned.

My eyelids started to droop, and I felt a dull, heavy feeling at the back of my head.

"Sister, you've stayed up late again. That's really bad for your health."

Erina peeked out of the bathroom while brushing her teeth, toothbrush still in her mouth, foam clinging to the corner of her lips, her expression disapproving.

"Staying up late isn't so bad..."

Eri Aragaki chuckled and said, "After all, I'm not staying up all night. I'll catch up on sleep during the day. I get enough sleep, Erina, don't worry."

Then she put the handle on the coffee table, stretched, and crumpled the blanket that had been covering her legs last night into a ball and pushed it into the corner of the sofa.

"Sister, you!"

Erina wanted to say something more, but in the end she had no choice but to rinse the foam out of her mouth and wipe her mouth with a towel.

She looked at Eri Aragaki, who was clearly exhausted but still stubborn, and sighed. "Alright then, but you still need to eat breakfast, sister. I'll make breakfast in a bit, remember to eat it before you go to sleep."

"Okay, thank you so much, Erina."

Eri Aragaki thanked her with a smile, then clasped her hands together and waved them at Erina.

Then she thought for a moment and turned off the game.

The game screen on the TV suddenly went black, leaving only a power indicator light flashing red in the lower right corner.

She stood up from beside the coffee table, walked to the computer desk in the corner of the living room, sat down, and turned on the computer.

She browsed some comic-related forums again, clicking her mouse between several familiar sections, but the posts and comments were all the same as before.

Discussion threads about Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece are always at the top of the list and have the most participants.

Attack on Titan isn't very popular. Although the number of threads in the discussion thread has increased since the beginning of the series, it's still far behind the top threads.

After all, the plot doesn't progress that quickly. Before Attack on Titan was adapted into an anime, it didn't have much popularity, as evidenced by its recent popularity rankings.

Their ranking has been firmly stuck at ninth or tenth place.

The positions of the popular manga ahead of it are not shaken at all. This is even with Hunter x Hunter going on an endless hiatus after August, which freed up a top ten spot for the manga behind to squeeze up.

Otherwise, the Titan would fall out of the top ten again. That top ten seat originally belonged to the hunter, but the hunter wasn't home, so the Titan was just sitting there temporarily.

And that is the harsh reality.

Even though the anime adaptation of Titan reached the point where Levi's squad was wiped out, Annie's identity was exposed, and Reiner self-destructed, its popularity ranking only improved by one or two places at most.

The annihilation of Levi's entire squad might generate a surge in plot discussion, but that's only temporary; things will revert to normal after a month.

That means at most, they might rank sixth or seventh, and that's it; they absolutely cannot go any higher.

The top three positions are occupied by Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece, while established works like Gintama, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, and Exorcist are ranked fourth through eighth. This pattern has been stable in JUMP for several years and cannot be broken by a new work that has not been adapted into an anime.

However... if Attack on Titan is adapted into an anime and aired, Eri Aragaki is even confident that she can compete with Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece, or even punch Naruto and kick One Piece, and try to take the number one spot.

In her past life, she witnessed firsthand how Attack on Titan's popularity transformed from a mediocre manga into a global phenomenon after the anime adaptation aired. The increase wasn't linear; it was exponential.

However, Eri Aragaki is still quite well-behaved now.

Now all she can do is honestly search for Giants fans' praise for her in the corners of various forums.

Fortunately, although the total number of Attack on Titan fans is not large, their activity level is quite good. Every time a new volume is released, someone will write a long analysis of the plot in the discussion thread, giving her many opportunities to smile foolishly in front of the screen.

However, this proportion is not high; most replies are brief, such as "This week's episode is good" or "When will the next episode be released?"

One particularly active reader is nicknamed "Nagato is Me," whose presence can be seen under almost every post about Attack on Titan.

However, his remarks were somewhat overly enthusiastic.

"The Giants' ranking is too low! They should be in the top five!"

"Teacher Pear's storyline this week is so exciting. The real world is just so cruel."

"You can tell from 'Wu Song' that Teacher Li's drawing skills are no worse than Xiao Jian's!"

"Giants are the best! Let's give our hearts to the Titans and Riko-sensei!"

"I also want to become a manga artist like Riko-sensei."

……

This person's replies in every post are always in the same tone, and they are very long. Sometimes, one person can talk to himself for more than twenty times in a single discussion thread.

He also seems to be an aspiring comic artist, frequently posting fan art.

I must say... it's really quite impressive, you can tell it's done by someone with skill.

Well... even Eri Aragaki blushed when she saw his overly harsh comments, and quickly scrolled down the page to avoid reading the replies on that page.

In addition, the popularity of "Wu Song" has recently subsided, but it is clear that "Wu Song" is still very popular in Japan, having dominated the top of the discussion charts in the short story section for several weeks.

It even briefly sparked a wave of "Wu Song fever" and "Water Margin fever" within the circle.

Some readers have started to spontaneously popularize the stories of other heroes in "Water Margin" on the forum. Some have made a long comparative analysis of Wu Song and Lin Chong, and others have started a thread to discuss the similarities and differences between the culture of outlaw heroes in China and Japan.

There's also a trend of it breaking into new circles, especially the color illustration of Wu Song wielding his sword, drawn by Eri Aragaki.

Many people took screenshots of it and used it as their profile picture, autograph, and some even printed it out and posted it on the exhibition boards at fan conventions, resulting in extremely high dissemination.

However, the popularity of short stories is always limited, and the internet is not as developed as it was in Eri Aragaki's previous life.

Before the rise of social media, the main way video websites spread content was through forums and static web pages, which prevented them from achieving sustained popularity. The videos only remained popular for two or three weeks before their popularity gradually waned.

If you search for Wu Song now, the relevant posts are all from several weeks ago, and the latest replies are becoming less frequent.

Eri Aragaki was about to close the forum, wash up, and then come back for breakfast and a nap.